Today's bland news from Xinhua News Agency... but.... what is Chang'e 4 going to do?A repeat of Chang'e 3 with a new Rover?

BEIJING, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- China plans to launch lunar probe Chang'e 5 in 2017, according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. The development of Chang'e 5 is proceeding smoothly, said the administration's spokesman Wu Zhijian at a press conference on Monday.

The just-concluded Chang'e 3 mission marked completion of the second phase of the country's lunar program, which includes orbiting, landing and returning to Earth.

The lunar program will enter the next stage of unmanned sampling and returning, which will include Chang'e 5 and 6 missions, according to Wu.

The feeling among China-watchers seems to be that Chang'E 4 will do what CE2 did for CE1 - if CE1 failed it's a simple back-up, but when CE1 succeeded, CE2 became an opportunity to test advanced technology. It flew a direct route to the Moon instead of several increasing orbits, it carried advanced cameras, it flew a more complex orbital mission including low altitude flyovers of the landing area for very high resolution imaging.

So for CE4 there are reports it will carry advanced auto-navigation software. And my impression now is that it may test sample collection and handling tools as well. All in preparation for CE5 and CE6. So still a rover mission, but more advanced.

May they also try re-igniting the lander's main engine to send it on a ballistichop to a different site? I think Surveyor did that, albeit to only a few feet away to enablestereo coverage of the surrounding area. They may not wish to do the same with Chang'e 3as it marks, more so than the rover, the site of the first Chinese landing on the Moon.

The feeling among China-watchers seems to be that Chang'E 4 will do what CE2 did for CE1 - if CE1 failed it's a simple back-up, but when CE1 succeeded, CE2 became an opportunity to test advanced technology. It flew a direct route to the Moon instead of several increasing orbits, it carried advanced cameras, it flew a more complex orbital mission including low altitude flyovers of the landing area for very high resolution imaging.

So for CE4 there are reports it will carry advanced auto-navigation software. And my impression now is that it may test sample collection and handling tools as well. All in preparation for CE5 and CE6. So still a rover mission, but more advanced.

The lunar program will enter the next stage of unmanned sampling and returning, which will include Chang'e-5 and 6 missions, according to Wu."The program's third phase will be more difficult because many breakthroughs must be made in key technologies such as moon surface takeoff, sampling encapsulation, rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit, and high-speed Earth reentry, which are all new to China," Wu said.

Rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit is curious, as this diagram previously released seems to show a return capsule lifting directly off the moon' surface, like the Soviet Luna 16 etc. You wouldn't carry the weight of an earth-return capsule down to the lunar surface if you planned to transfer the samples in lunar orbit.

Whilst some technology could be carried across - the requirement for Mars ascent and lunar ascent are very different. 2x the gravity, plus an atmosphere to deal with. The two vehicles would be very different.

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